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Thursday, 18 August 2016

Thursday Movie Picks #110: Movies About Crimes Gone Wrong

Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks Hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves, This week's theme is movies where crime goes awry. I committed a crime once that went awry, I tried to steal a lollipop and got caught and then banned from my local corner shop.

Note that there may be spoilers for The Killing

The first film is Green Room where a guy murders his girlfriend after hearing her desire to leave, it was about to be quickly sweeped under the carpet until the band playing for the night stumble into the room and see the dead body. Naturally, they have to dealt with also. Tense and exciting the film features a menacing performance from Patrick Stewart and a great performance from the late Anton Yelchin.

This stunning exercise in technical brilliance ensures that this German thriller stands above the rest. Shot in one continuous take, Victoria is a perfect example of the power than real time filmmaking can have. The film was disqualified from winning Best Foreign Picture because of the high amount of English dialogue, still I doubt it would have won.

The Killing is one of Stanley Kubrick's lesser known films, but still an excellent film. The heist itself is a work of art...that is until it starts raining money right at the very end.

The Killing is a really wonderful film, taut and suspenseful. Very interesting in the scope of Kubrick's career since it was so early and he was still under the studio mandate peeks of his future style are evident but he's still finding his way.

Haven't seen the other two but both sound worth checking out.

Love this sort of film so finding three wasn't tough this week.

One False Move (1992)-After a series of drug deals go bad and result in several murders a trio of gangsters take it on the lam ending up in the small Arkansas town of Star City. On their trail are two LAPD detectives who team with the small town sheriff (Bill Paxton) to capture the three. Bracing, violent thriller excellently directed by Carl Franklin. Co-written by Billy Bob Thornton who plays one of the criminals.

He Ran All the Way (1951)-Petty thief Nick Robey (John Garfield) teams up with his buddy Al to pull what they plan to be their big score, a payroll robbery. But they are foiled by a cop who shoots Al, panicked Nick shoots the cop. On the run he ducks into a public pool house and strikes up a conversation with a young girl named Peggy (Shelley Winters). Smitten Peggy walks home with him and he takes her family hostage until the tense finale. Low budget, taut noir was the blacklisted Garfield’s last film before his too early death at 39.

Criss Cross (1949)-Armored car driver Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) is still carrying a torch for his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne de Carlo) who is now married to a L. A. gangster, Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Anna impulsive and restless is drawn to him as well and when Slim catches them together he forces Steve to participate in a robbery on the cars he drives. It does not go well and a series of double crosses lead to tragedy for all. If you only know Yvonne de Carlo from The Munsters this is the best place to see she was not only an incredibly beautiful woman but an excellent actress as well.

Ah great picks! I haven't seen them - but reading about them etc. I really wanted to see Green Room, so sad about Yelchin. Yes Victoria! They shot it three times then picked the best take - such a great way of filming, difficult but impressive. I'm not a huge Kubrick fan but this sounded really good, The Killing that is.